When it comes to being constantly nickeled and dimed for a train ride that never returns, SouthCoast taxpayers have long felt like poor Charlie.

Did he ever return? No, he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston
He’s the man who never returned. — “Charlie on the M.T.A.”

When it comes to being constantly nickled and dimed for a train ride that never returns, SouthCoast taxpayers have long felt like poor Charlie.

It looked like the long-delayed train might finally arrive at its destination when Gov. Deval Patrick put the South Coast Rail plan on the track from myth to reality this year. When Patrick proposed his ambitious $1.9 billion plan to pay for South Coast Rail and a variety of short-term transportation improvements and long-term enhancements in every region of the state, it seemed to shift the momentum.

But when it was the legislative leaders’ turn to push South Coast Rail forward, they just jumped off and let the train crash and burn. House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, and Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, threw our region under that slow, one-way bus that drives the SouthCoast’s tax dollars up to Beacon Hill and drops them in every town in between. Meanwhile, the train we’ve been promised for decades just never returns.

This week, our hopes were again dashed when the legislative leaders released a much smaller, $500 million legislative proposal that would raise $165 million in new revenue through, among other things, a 3-cent and rising hike in the gas tax and a $1 increase in the cigarette tax to remove the operating deficit in the state’s transportation system that largely bypasses the SouthCoast.

“For the nickels and dimes you’ll be spending in Boston
You’d be better off in Timbuktu.”

Indeed, to SouthCoast taxpayers, paying for a service that never returns is nothing new. We’ve long been forced to help foot the bill for the Boston area’s transportation system. While Patrick’s plan — which offered big boosts to both transportation infrastructure and education — did come with a steep increase in the income tax and ended a variety of popular tax breaks, it was at least much more equitable to all regions of the state and would have addressed the long-neglected statewide transportation infrastructure from crumbling highways, to buses and trains — which have all suffered chronic underfunding, largely as a result of Boston’s Big Dig debacle.

Everyone in Massachusetts should be concerned about the legislative proposal featuring business tax hikes and an unclear method of inflation adjustment that would automatically hike the gas tax in the future. How will inflation be adjusted and just how much of an automatic gas tax hike does that mean for Massachusetts motorists?

But it’s even more painful for SouthCoast taxpayers. The legislative plan would inordinately hurt both individuals and struggling small businesses here without giving us much tangible benefit in return. An increase in the cigarette tax merely steals another buck a pack from the same group — smokers — whose nicotine addiction is consistently exploited to pay for the state’s spending addiction. Now they’d be forced to pay for an expense that’s completely unrelated to their vice: transportation.

Statistics indicate that the SouthCoast has more smokers than other regions of the state, and studies show that another tax hike is not going to change that. We also have more commuters who would be forced to pay a higher gas tax because there are few public transit options available due to chronic underfunding of public transit on the SouthCoast.

The region’s lack of jobs forces our residents to commute long distances to make a living. Meanwhile, our congested highways will continue to crumble because there are no viable transportation alternatives to lessen the wear and tear. All the while, the region’s choking under very poor air quality, while South Coast Rail and other public transit options that hold the keys to help clear the air are locked away.

Our region’s legislative delegation must join with legislators of other regions that have been left behind by the Boston-centric transportation system and push for a more equitable funding mechanism that ensures that South Coast Rail keeps moving forward. If ever there were a time for Speaker Pro-Tempore Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset, to use her leadership position and considerable influence to stick up for our region, this is it. It’s time for the SouthCoast delegation to present a more equitable plan that better addresses our region’s long-neglected transportation needs.

… Don’t you think it is a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay?
… Get poor Charlie off that MTA!

Just like Charlie, the SouthCoast is “sore and disgusted and we’re absolutely busted,” after politicians from both parties have taken us on this long, mythical South Coast Rail ride for more than 20 years and have never kept their end of the bargain. This region should not be forced to pay another nickel or dime for a transportation system that continues to drive away prospects of economic growth and jobs that we so desperately need.

While legislators have hinted that a transportation bond bill may be in the works that could fund South Coast Rail, given the state’s track record, we’ll believe it when we see it. Even if that bonding plan materializes, it’s still no guarantee that money would indeed be spent to build South Coast Rail.

Without a guarantee — in writing — that we’re paying that steep roundtrip fare for a train that will indeed return, our legislators must reject their leaders’ deeply flawed transportation bill. If the legislation does move forward in its current form, the governor ought to stay true to his word and veto this inequitable, unjust and insufficient transportation financing plan.

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